Tribal Clashes in Ghana Leave 31 Dead and 48,000 Displaced

SadaNews - 31 people have been killed and nearly 50,000 others have been forced to flee their homes in northern Ghana due to tribal violence that occurred in late August, according to government officials announced last Thursday evening.

The National Disaster Management Organization told the "Agence France-Presse" that about 48,000 people, mostly women and children, have been driven from their homes due to these clashes rooted in land disputes.

Zakaria Mahama, the regional director of the organization, stated to "Agence France-Presse" that "for the past 5 days, we have not witnessed any gunfire, killings, or attacks," noting that the displaced individuals have begun returning to their homes.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Mubarak Montaka told a local radio station that the clashes resulted in 31 fatalities and forced 13,253 Ghanaians to flee to neighboring Côte d'Ivoire.

A local official in Côte d'Ivoire confirmed this number to "Agence France-Presse."

Philippe Hein, president of the regional council in Bounkani, stated that the refugees have "arrived in 17 villages" near the border in an area that already hosts around 30,000 refugees from Burkina Faso.

The violence erupted on August 24 in the village of Gbiniere (Savanna region), near the border with Côte d'Ivoire, due to a land dispute involving about 10 local groups.

The conflict began when a local leader sold a piece of land to a private developer without the consent of the affected community, and when the developer attempted to access the land to start work, local residents violently opposed him, even reaching the point of burning down the palace of the local leader behind this sale.

Authorities quickly deployed more than 700 members of the military and police and imposed a curfew to restore security.

An investigative committee has been formed to look into the causes of these clashes and work toward reconciliation.

Land-related tribal disputes and local leadership conflicts are a widespread scourge in northern Ghana, although they rarely cause displacement on this scale.